Talking with our Customer, Comfenergy, LLC of Sterling, VA on Climate Change and Home Performance 

August 7, 2019
C.D. Guillaudeu, Your Business Our World
Crystal Mullins, Comfenergy Marketing Director
Madison Parse, Comfenergy Marketing Intern

 
Climate Change Impacts the Comfort and Energy Efficiency of a Home:

Our climate is warming at a fast pace and every year brings hotter summers, higher pollen counts, more intense storms, and more extreme temperatures.  As temperatures reach new extreme heights, so does your tolerance for living uncomfortably. To live uncomfortably is to live with unnecessary allergens in your home, lose sleep due to the temperature of your bedroom, or spend too much on your fuel and electric bills.  Lighten the load of your allergy medication, HVAC systems, and your wallet by learning about why your home functions the way it does and how that impacts your health and the planet.

Any building, whether it’s commercial or residential, is a network of lighting, plumbing, heating, cooling, and airflow systems in combination with how a person lives in a space, how a person moves through the space, as well as a system of airflows. Most buildings are not airtight and air flows into the building, bringing with it some of the dust and pollen from the outside world.
 
In our homes we pay for desirable air quality conditions and sometimes there are variables that we cannot see that also have control over these conditions. Inside the home, airflow is responsive to blockages and leakages you cannot see. Examples of this may include more insulation in one area than another, small openings around light fixtures that let conditioned air escape out of living spaces, drafts, or noticeable temperature inconsistencies.

This category is for the old Loudoun County Green Business Challenge that was started back in 2009 in Loudoun County.  Then it was hosted by the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce and then it was taken on by a group of people who formed a 501c3 in 2018 called the Virginia Green Initiative, Inc. to continue hosting the Green Business Challenge.

It was broken into two challenges, one for businesses that worked out of their home or rented office space and the other scorecard was for businesses that owned their own property.

In this category are the 2022 scorecards, that companies can use as a starting point.  Also presentations that VGI had during their time.

As of December 2022, Little Tree Huggers Preschool in Leesburg, VA has expressed interest in taking this on.

Two Business Sustainability Programs for Virginia and Fairfax County

This article is about our info session we had on Thursday Nov 12th with guest speaker Jessica Lavender CEM of the Fairfax County Green Business Partner Program, Virginia Green Initiative's Green Business Challenge, and Gerry Gurgick of Target: Energy Zero giving an intro to PACE financing for Commercial property owners in Virginia.  Gerry also listed some tax incentives that are available for businesses in Virginia.

This session could not have been possible without the help from Jennifer Rose, Executive Director of the Central Fairfax Chamber of Commerce.

Jessica Lavender started off our event by introducing us to the Fairfax County Green Business Partner Program.

Membership in the Green Business Partners program is free. To participate, a business simply must:

Own, manage, or lease at least one location in Fairfax County.
Submit a completed application including:
At least five (5) sustainability actions in the areas of management and leadership, energy, waste, water, and transportation. Participants are encouraged, but not required, to take advantage of third-party certification programs, such as ENERGY STAR® or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®).
At least one (1) quantitative result, such as kilowatt hours of electricity saved or tons of cardboard recycled. While we ask that you share at least 1 quantitative result, we hope that you’ll share many more so that your success can inspire others.
Renew every three years. Participating businesses must update their profile once every three years to maintain a listing in the Green Business Directory.

Many thank-yous to Ms. Lavender for joining us in our event.

Next Candice Guillaudeu reviewed Virginia Green Initiative, Inc's (VGI) Green Business Challenge.  The VGI Green Business Challenge is also free to participate.  There are 2 scorecards, the Commercial scorecard is for businesses that own their own building and the Home/Tenant scorecard is for all other businesses.

Gerry Gurgick of Target: Energy Zero gave us an introduction to the PACE program in Virginia and also listed out some incentives that are currently available to businesses.

• 10% tax credit on solar in Loudoun County
• 26% on solar for 2020, being reduced to 22% in 2021.
• Dominion Energy - Businesses can sign up with Dominion Energy to provide Energy Audits for residents.

Find energy saving incentives through the DSIRE site listed by state.

Below is the main PowerPoint used in the event.

PPT#1: Presentation slides (give it a few seconds to show up below).

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